called also Cyperus Niliacus, the plant from which the Egyptians were in use to make their paper. It is a large plant that grows wild in the midst of the stagnating water left in hollow places after the inundation of the Nile. We are told by Theophrastus and Pliny, that the natives used the root of it for firing, as well as for other purposes of wood: that they built little boats of the plant itself; and formed the inner bark into sails, garments, coverlets, and cordage; that they chewed it both raw and sodden, and swallowed the juice as a dainty: but, of all its uses, the most celebrated was that of its serving to write upon, like the paper of these days, which derives its name from this plant of Egypt. The intermediate part of the stalk was cut and separated into different laminae, which were set apart, and dried in the sun for the manufacture. These laminae were joined together horizontally and transversely, in sheets or leaves, upon a smooth board; then moistened with water, which dissolved a kind of viscid glue in the pores of the plant, serving to cement and render the whole uniform. The sheet being thus formed, was put into a press, and afterwards dried for use. Such was the process of making paper in Egypt: but as the sheets were coarse, brown, unequal, and imperfect, the Romans invented methods to bring the fabric to perfection. They contrived a glue or gum, by means of which they could occasionally enlarge the size and volume. They bleached it to a surprising degree of whiteness: they beat it with hammers, so as to render it more thin and less porous; they smoothed and polished it with ivory; and by a fort of calendar gave it a shining gloo like that of the Chinese paper. According to the different degrees of delicacy, whiteness, and size, it acquired different appearances, either from the names of particular manufactures, from the great personages who used it, or from the particular uses to which it was put; such as the Fannian, the Leviathan, the Claudian, the Imperial, the Hieratic, and the Amphitheatric.